Arkansas Blog

Free speech takes a licking

Rep. Shirley Walters' bill to curb "cyber-bullying" might be more defensible if it was written only to cover students. But it includes school staff and it's a transparent make-good for her hometown Greenwood, where school administrators punished students who posted cartoons on the Internt making sport of administrators. The school district lost a lawsuit over the matter.

School administrators already have won limited control of on-campus publications in the interest of safety. Now they're trying to extend their censorship rights into students' homes. I don't think it's constitutional. But the House is untroubled by the notion. It approved Walters' bad bill today 91-7.